Because, as the Athanasian Creed says,
'such as the Father is, such is the Son.' But, if that be true, we
are to honour the Father even as we honour the Son; because such as
the Son is, such is the Father. Both are true, and we must believe
both; and therefore we must not give to Christ the honour which we
should to a loving friend, and give to the Father the honour which
we should to an awful judge. We must give them both the same
honour. If we have a godly fear of the Father, we ought to have a
godly fear of Christ; and if we trust Christ, we ought to trust the
Father also. We must believe that Jesus Christ, the Son, is the
brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his
person; and therefore we must believe that because Jesus is love,
therefore the Father is love; because Jesus is long-suffering,
therefore the Father is long-suffering; because Jesus came to save
the world, therefore the Father must have sent him to save the
world, or he would never have come; for he does nothing, he says, of
himself. Because we can trust Jesus utterly, therefore we can trust
the Father utterly. Because we believe that the Son has life in
himself, to give to whomsoever he will, we must believe that the
Father has life in himself likewise, and not, as some seem to fancy,
only the power of death and destruction.
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